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Photo Speed / Timing (11.69)
As with document printing, we print photos on the best quality setting, and, in the case of laser printers, we use a laser quality glossy brochure paper, Staples Heavyweight Color laser Paper (96 bright, 32 lb.). Test times were very good for this printer, printing 4-by-6-inch photos in about 20 seconds (2.89 pages per minute [ppm]) and 8.5-by-11-inch images even more quickly, in about 12 seonds (average of 4.95 ppm). We suspect the slower times for the 4-by-6-inch prints were due to the smaller media size. We fed 4-by-6-inch paper into the printer, but this is not a typical size for this or any other laser.
Color Accuracy (1.84)
We tested the HP 3600’s color reproduction by printing an electronic version of the GretagMacbeth color checker chart and evaluating the printed values using an Eye-One spectrophotometer. Unfortunately, when we compared the HP 3600’s printed values to the original LAB values, we got an 11.7 mean color error – the largest error on any printer we have tested to date.
The HP3600’s pitfalls are displayed in its rendering of the Blue Flower patch. The deep blue in the tile looses a chunk of its red component and instead boosts the green and blue to compensate. The result is a color shift from a purplish-blue hue to a soft, almost baby blue. This problem is further accentuated by the number of tiles on the reproduced chart that are nearly identical to this shade. Fortunately, most of the brunt work demanded of this printer should fall under the text component.
Color Gamut (1.39)
This test used Gamutvision to create the chart below, which represents the total number of colors a printer can produce, i.e. its color space. We compared the printer’s color space to the fixed Adobe RGB color space. In the chart, the color space of the printer is the solid colored shape, and the Adobe RGB space is the surrounding grid. The closer in size the two shapes are, the better the printer performed.
The HP 3600 is not meant to print photographs, and this clearly shows. The printer could only produce 21.6 percent of Adobe RGB colors, which is not even half the amount of colors decent nonlaser printers can produce. This discrepancy is clear in color prints, where colors look weak and washed out.
Dmax (2.59)
We test how dark a printer can print its black as a way of showing the printer’s full tonal range. The whitest white is determined by the paper tone, so the darkest dark determines the tonal range. We assess the blackest black by measuring the ratio of light reflected from the surface of the paper, giving us a density value called Dmax. Dmax is higher when there is less light reflected from the print. This corresponds roughly to the dynamic range measurement in cameras. The test prints were printed on a heavyweight gloss color laser paper as well as managed by the stock color profile and a custom color profile we created.
The HP 3600 failed miserably on our Dmax test, yielding a value of 1.39, which corresponds to a dark gray, not even a black. Decent photo printers score above a 2, and the best are around 2.5 or so. The HP 3600 is not designed to print photos, and the Dmax test shows one of the reasons why. Expect to print washed out photos with indistinct tonal transitions with this printer.
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